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Take Control of Using Lion

Explore Lion's native habitat with an expert guide!

This ebook will teach you how to use your Mac more effectively with Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, whether you embrace all of Lion's new capabilities or strike a balance between old and new. Mac expert and former college professor Matt Neuburg explains how to use these important new features in Lion:

Resume: Find out how to enjoy the new Resume feature that re-opens applications and windows when you restart your Mac or relaunch a program. (Also, learn how to turn it off temporarily or permanently.)

Mission Control: Discover the many ways to enter and control Mission Control, and figure out how to make its many window-management options work for you.

Full-screen mode: Find out how to enter and leave full-screen mode, and see how it relates to Mission Control.

Launchpad: Launchpad brings the iPhone Home screen to the Mac. Learn how to use and customize Launchpad, and get ideas for additional ways to open your applications.

Gestures: If you have a trackpad or Magic Mouse, get ready for gestures in Lion, since there are more of them than ever before, and it's well worth learning a few. You'll learn about gestures as you read, since many Lion commands can be invoked with a gesture.

"Matt Neuberg has written a book useful to both diehard [Mac] cultists like me, and new users, both of whom can find what they need easily and quickly." —Lisa Spangenberg, tech blogger

More Info

Contents & Intro

What’s New

FAQ

Blog

Other new-in-Lion-related questions that you'll find answers to are these:

Book Info

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About the Author

Matt Neuburg is a TidBITS contributing editor and the author of several books about Apple software, including Programming iOS 4. He has been programming computers for 45 years, and has written popular Mac and iOS freeware such as MemoryStick and the TidBITS News app.

Read Me First

Every couple of years, Apple plunges its users into a new world with a major revision of Mac OS X. This time, it’s Lion (Mac OS X 10.7). So, what’s new in Lion? What’s all the fuss about? This book gives you a hands-on guided tour, while pointing out the adjustments, tweaks, and customizations you can and should make in the System, the Finder, and more. It was written by Matt Neuburg, edited by Tonya Engst, and published by TidBITS Publishing Inc.

Introduction

If working with computers teaches us anything, it’s that things change. Change is exciting! So I’m sure you’re excited about your brand new installation of Mac OS X version 10.7 Lion. As you’ve doubtless already noticed, it’s full of eye-catching animations; window styles have been tweaked; interface widgets are drawn differently; and there are some new features to play around with.

But change is also exhausting. It can even be confusing. When I first saw Lion in action on my monitor, my first thought was: “Whoa, what’s all this?” Since then, I’ve gotten my head more or less wrapped around Lion, and I’ve come to enjoy using it. This book is my report to you about what I’ve learned. You can think of me as an explorer, a pioneer returned from the frontier to show you the easiest path through a strange new landscape. Maybe I was initially exhausted and confused by Lion, but you don’t have to be! Together with this book, you can meet Lion head-on, understand what it’s about, and start working with it efficiently and successfully, straight out of the box.

My goal in this book, as in my previous Take Control introductions to new systems, is to make you productive. Your computer isn’t a mere interface display; it’s a tool for getting things done. Now that you’ve upgraded to Lion, that tool might feel a little unwieldy at first. I want to get you past that feeling as fast as possible. You don’t just want to look at Lion; you want to use it. And you certainly don’t want it to use you; you don’t want what’s new and unfamiliar to keep you from getting back to work comfortably and quickly.

That’s what this book is for. What options, settings, choices do you need to tackle, what new techniques and possibilities, what ways of thinking and working and understanding do you need to know about, in order to start using Lion comfortably and efficiently, so you can stop gaping at your computer and get back to using it? This book will show you.

It’s already a cliché, I know, but I’ll say it anyway: pick up that whip, grab that chair, and let’s tame Lion together!

Using Lion Quick Start

This book describes many areas of Lion worth exploring and understanding, some of which will be more important to you than others. Naturally, I think that sooner or later you should take the time to read this book from start to finish, but I also understand that you’re eager to get working with Lion and that you might want to know what’s most important to know and do right now, and come back to the rest of the book later. So, I suggest a three-stage approach:

Learn about Lion’s new features, so that you can get the most out of them in your work.

Catch up on the rest of this book whenever you have time.

Here, then, is how I suggest you start using Lion.

Do these things right away:

Although it is entirely fine to use only this book to learn about Lion, this book picks up where Take Control of Upgrading to Lion leaves off. If you have that other book, read “Perform Post-installation Tasks” there first. (If you don’t have that other book, don’t worry.)

You’re going to be using System Preferences a lot, especially at first; so Straighten Out Your System Preferences.

The Dock is always present (or would like to be), so set it up the way you want it: Dominate the Dock.

Make sure you can see clearly; you’ll be miserable if your monitor isn’t helping you see colors correctly and read text clearly. At the very least:

If colors seem washed out or unsatisfactory, Calibrate Your Screen.

If text isn’t easy on the eyes, Smooth Your Text. (That section has instructions for a Terminal hack that was important to me when I started using Lion; without it, I couldn’t read text at all.)

If the cursor is hard for you to see, you might prefer to increase its size (a new Lion rendering of the larger cursor makes this a particularly pleasing option): Grow the Cursor.

If the menu bar is hard to see because the color of the desktop background bleeds through, Make the Menu Bar Opaque.

Decide how you want scrollbars to work. This is particularly important if you’re coming from any earlier Mac OS X system, because the look and behavior of Lion’s scrollbars can be a big surprise. Read Survey Your Scrollbars.

Don’t stop now! Go right on to the next section…

Explore major new aspects of Lion:

There’s a lot to know about that’s new in Lion! Read Know What’s New. Follow the links there to learn about and explore new Lion features. In particular:

Resizing windows works in a new way, and so does customizing a window’s toolbar. Read Resize Efficiently, Lose the Lozenge.

Prepare to have windows reappear when you launch an application or restart the computer: Get Ready for Resume.

What’s that double-arrow at the top right of the window? It’s so you can Make Full-Screen Windows.

Some applications have no Save menu item anymore. That’s right: you’re about to Stop Saving.

Now you’re ready to Meet Mission Control and Manage Spaces. (As time permits, read the rest of Wash Your Windows.)

Curious about Launchpad? Time to Adopt a Launcher.

Get acquainted, or reacquainted, with the Finder, Spotlight, and Open and Save dialogs, all of which are chock full of new tweaks and behaviors: read Handle the Hierarchy.

If you have a Magic Mouse, a Magic Trackpad, or a modern Mac laptop, Lion is a gesture-based world; get acquainted with those gestures by reading Trick Out Your Mouse or Trackpad.

Do these things as needed and when time permits:

Tweak keyboard shortcuts and keyboard behavior to match your needs and habits; read the rest of Master the Mouse, Control the Keyboard.

Meet Lion’s new spelling correction interface and discover a new way to enter accented characters: Tackle Your Text.

Make effective use of the icons at the right end of your menu bar; read Customize Status Menus.

Make various additional small customizations; read Perform Miscellaneous Configurations.

Be ready to continue exploring customizations; read Keep Using Lion.

Know What’s New

If you’re familiar with an earlier version of Mac OS X, pay attention to this chapter! Lion presents interesting changes that you’ll want to take account of as you adjust your work habits to fit the new environment. This chapter lists some of the most important ones.

For some Lion innovations, I refer you to later chapters of this book for more detailed discussion; but for others, this chapter is the only place where I discuss them. So be sure to read this chapter to get an idea of what to expect as you start using Lion. (If you are new to the Mac or don’t understand all the terminology used here, don’t worry—all the important points are discussed later in the book.)

Here are the main points of what’s new in Lion:

Resume

When you quit an application in Lion, its windows are remembered, and are restored automatically when you launch that application again later. You will want to revise your work habits accordingly. Read Get Ready for Resume.

Auto Save

Some applications now save documents automatically as you work. Autosaving as a user option has been built into the system for applications to implement if they see fit since 10.4 Tiger, but this is different: it isn’t a user option; it’s a wholesale change in how these applications work, and in how you’ll work with these applications. Moreover, applications that autosave allow you to review and revert to earlier versions of a document, similar to Time Machine. Read Stop Saving.

Window Changes

You’ll manipulate windows a bit differently from before:

Resize from any edge: Windows can be resized by dragging on any edge or corner (and so there’s no longer a resize indicator at a window’s lower right). Read Resize Efficiently, Lose the Lozenge.

Scrollbars: Lion windows display their scrollbars in a new style, reminiscent of scroll indicators on the iOS platform. Becoming comfortable with scrollbars and deciding how you want scrolling to work in Lion will be one of your most important initial tasks. Read Survey Your Scrollbars.

Note: iOS is the operating system that runs on Apple’s iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch handheld devices.

Full-screen windows: Some windows in some applications give you the option to make them take over the entire screen; when you do, even the menu bar is hidden. You’ll want to understand how to make a window take over the screen and when it might be advantageous to do so, as well as how to switch to and away from full-screen windows and how to make them relinquish their full-screen status. Read Make Full-Screen Windows.

Mission Control: Exposé has been revamped once again, and it has been renamed Mission Control. (No “Houston, we have a problem” jokes, please!) Spaces are now configured from within Mission Control (there is no longer a separate Spaces preference pane or application). Read Meet Mission Control, along with Manage Spaces.

Mission Control can also display the Dashboard as a Space; read Dominate Dashboard.

Finder Changes

Here are some changes you’ll notice when working in the Finder:

Finder windows: There are many changes in how Finder windows look and operate (read Handle the Hierarchy):

Finder windows now by default include in the sidebar a new smart folder, called All My Files; read Trash All My Files.

Sidebar text size can be changed; read Set the Sidebar Text and Icon Size.

All views can now be grouped and sorted, according to a longer list of categories, and a new Arrange pop-up menu in the toolbar helps you do this; read Arrange and Sort.

In Column view, document previews are more informative.

Finder search windows behave in some new ways; read Jump with Spotlight.

Copy-and-move in the Finder: You can now copy-and-move a Finder item (before, you could copy-and-paste a Finder item, but this resulted in two copies of it). Read Copy and Paste in the Finder.

Viewing a user Library in the Finder: By default, a user’s Library is no longer displayed, but you can display it by holding Option and choosing Go > Library. I already mentioned this under Paths and Invisible Libraries, earlier.

Improved Open and Save Dialogs

Open and Save dialogs are more like Finder windows. They can be displayed in any of the same four view modes as the Finder. List view can display any of the same columns as List view in the Finder. Any view can be grouped and sorted on any of the same criteria as in the Finder. Read Tweak Your Open and Save Dialogs.

Launchpad

A new application, Launchpad, gives you a way to start up any application in the Applications folder. (What did I say about those “Houston” jokes?) Its interface is reminiscent of the Home screen (“springboard”) in iOS. Read Adopt a Launcher.

Note: If you think that Lion looks a bit like the iOS operating system that runs on iPhones and other iPhone-like mobile devices, it’s not just you. Apple has deliberately copied aspects of iOS’s intuitive interface and behavior to Lion.

System Preferences and Dock

Here are some changes you’ll notice in the System Preferences application, and when working with the Dock:

User management: The Accounts preference pane in System Preferences is renamed once again, to Users & Groups, and the Parental Controls preference pane has gotten another makeover. Read Perform Miscellaneous Configurations, much later, for some discussion of both of these panes.

Gesture control: The Trackpad preference pane has been given a major makeover; read Trick Out Your Mouse or Trackpad.

Other System Preferences changes: The Appearance pane is renamed to General. The Security pane is now called Security & Privacy and has a new Privacy view, and the Print & Fax pane has dropped fax support and become the Print & Scan pane.You can now prevent a preference pane’s icon from appearing in the main view of the System Preferences window; read Straighten Out Your System Preferences.

Miscellaneous applications: A number of Apple applications have interface changes:

Mail has a default look reminiscent of the iPad’s Mail app; if you prefer the old look, choose Mail > Preferences, open the Viewing pane, and check the “Use classic layout” box.

Safari has a useful new feature, Reading List (choose View > Show Reading List), a pane where you can store URLs for later perusal.

Address Book looks more like an address book; iCal looks more like a calendar.

System Profiler is renamed System Information, and it has a new basic interface (choose Apple > About This Mac, and click More Info) in addition to its old interface.

Front Row is no longer present.

There’s a new application, FaceTime. FaceTime is used to make and receive video-style “phone” calls over the Internet to other devices running FaceTime, including an iPhone or iPad.

The Time Machine backup utility now can conveniently switch to making local backups if your usual remote backup drive becomes unavailable. It also can keep your backups encrypted. Take Control of Upgrading to Lion describes the immediate basics of turning on Time Machine in Lion.

Lion’s FileVault 2 improves on the previous FileVault in several important ways and it makes it possible for you to encrypt the contents of a disk in order to protect against thieves and snoops. Take Control of Upgrading to Lion describes the pros and cons of FileVault 2 and gives steps for enabling it.

Interface tweaks: Many interface widgets have a slightly different appearance from their incarnations in earlier systems:

A new window-based zoom option lets you move a zoomed box around on your screen, as though you are moving a rectangular magnifying glass on top of the surface (see Take a Closer Look). Apple describes this as picture-in-picture zoom.

The enlarged cursor is smoother (read Grow the Cursor).

One major new interface element has been introduced, the popover, which was borrowed from the iPad. To see an example, click the magnifying-glass icon at the rightmost end of the menu bar (or press Command-Space). Then, enter some term, such as popover, and hover the pointer over its dictionary definition in the Spotlight menu (where it says “Look Up”). Another example is the Downloads window in Safari, which you now summon as a popover from a button that appears at the top right of the window when you download something.

Some applications use a slightly altered Find interface; in TextEdit, for example, Edit > Find > Find (Command-F) no longer summons a dialog, but instead reveals a search bar at the top of the window.

Some applications use a new interface for displaying spelling corrections (read Set Up Text Behavior).

There’s a new way of entering accented characters (read Enter a Compound Character).

The Character Viewer has a new interface (read Use the Input Menu).

Permissions changes: Some folders have altered permissions. Most notably, permissions are changed on the Applications folder in such a way as to make it more difficult for you to remove an application by dragging it elsewhere in the Finder: you must hold the Command key as you drag, or you’ll just get an alias, and for certain applications that belong to Apple, you won’t be able to drag them out at all.

Animation: Lion makes increased use of animation—when presenting windows and dialogs, for example.

Changes that Apple made to 10.6 Snow Leopard during the course of its development are naturally still present in Lion. Such changes constitute differences between Lion and the first version of Snow Leopard, but if you were updating your system software regularly while using Snow Leopard, they won’t be new to you. For example, iTunes changed its interface slightly over the course of Snow Leopard. Safari 5 (released in June 2010) introduced Safari Reader and extensions. And, of course, Mac OS X 10.6.6 brought the Mac App Store.

Lion also brings with it many “under the hood” technological changes that matter mainly to developers. The chief technological change that will matter directly to you is that Rosetta is no longer supported. This means that PowerPC-only applications will not run under Lion (to learn more about the transition away from PowerPC-only software, read Take Control of Upgrading to Lion or my article “Preparing for Lion: Find Your PowerPC Applications”).

What’s New in This Edition

Take Control of Using Lion is the fifth edition of an ebook I originally wrote in 2003, then called Take Control of Customizing Panther. Fast-forward to 2011, and although Take Control of Using Lion still covers customization, it also looks more fully at understanding and using this newest iteration of Mac OS X.

If you’ve been reading this ebook through its previous incarnations, or feel that you already know a great deal about previous Big Cat versions of Mac OS X, take note of the Know What’s New chapter, a few pages ahead; it summarizes new goodies, methods of working, and other changes in 10.7 Lion, and helps you locate the related new info in this book.

Note: You won’t get the full Lion experience unless you use finger gestures with a trackpad or a similar modern mousing device. Although this ebook will work nicely for you no matter what your input device, I wholeheartedly describe finger gestures for trackpads (and Apple’s Magic Mouse) throughout.

Like previous editions of this ebook, this one is sold with a companion ebook with the word Upgrading in its title, intended to be read before this one. We coordinated even more tightly than usual between the two manuscripts this time. As a result, a chapter in Take Control of Upgrading to Lion, “Perform Post-installation Tasks,” explains a few immediately important customizations that I don’t talk about here, and then sends you here to learn more. You certainly don’t need Take Control of Upgrading to Lion to use this book, and if you’ve already been using Lion for a while you likely don’t need it at all. However, many people do buy these two books together.

Can I read this ebook on an iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, or Kindle?

There are lots of great ways to read our ebooks on these devices. For more details, please read our latest Device Advice.

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In my Using Lion book, I describe ("Resize Efficiently, Lose the Lozenge") how to resize a window by dragging any edge or corner. In version 1.2 of the book, I added a fact that I'd missed: as you drag, you can hold Shift to maintain the window’s current aspect ratio, or Option to resize from the window’s center (or both). Incredibly, however, I still managed to miss a further aspect of this feature: If you drag from an edge or the bottom of the window the wrong way, you drag the entire window to reposition it, rather than resizing it.

By "the wrong way," I mean perpendicular to the direction of the arrow cursor that shows you the resizing direction. So, for example, you click at one side of the window and start dragging up or down, instead of sideways as the arrow cursor indicates. Presto, you're dragging the entire window! Once you've started dragging the window, so that Lion knows you want to drag rather than resize the window, you can continue dragging in any direction, and put the window where you want it.

This is a big improvement over earlier Mac OS X systems where, for many windows, the only way to reposition the window was to drag the title bar. There were exceptions; for example, in the Finder, if you showed the status bar at the bottom of the window, you could drag the window by the status bar. But Lion extends this so you can drag any resizable window by any resizable edge.

In his TidBITS article Meanwhile, Back at the Lion Ranch…, Matt tells you where to get the updaters for Mac OS X Lion 10.7.2, and takes you on a tour of what's new in this release. Hint: iCloud integration isn't the only thing.

The iOS Home page was obviously the inspiration for Mac OS X 10.7 Lion's Launchpad feature, and for those who have used an iOS device, it should be very familiar. But not everyone with a Mac uses an iOS device.

A new "under the hood" feature of Lion allows it to quit an application when it needs resources ... or when it "thinks" you don't really want it running. You can read all about Lion's Automatic Termination feature in the TidBITS article Lion Is a Quitter, by Matt Neuberg, author of Take Control of Using Lion.

Take Control author Kirk McElhearn reports in a TidBITS article, Video Viewing in Lion Freezes New iMacs (4 August 2011), about a freezing problem that can occur when new iMacs running Lion attempt to play video after being woken from sleep. Find out the details, the symptoms, and what Apple has done so far to address this issue. (Note: I, too, have a new iMac running Lion, and have seen the problem first-hand.)